Is Buying Your Own Home in Japan Worth it?

Does it make sense to invest in your own place, or should you continue paying rent?

Buying a home requires serious faces! — Image by author

If you want to buy your own home in Japan, you’ll need one of two things:

1. a flashy smile, a weighty wallet, and more zeros in your bank account than toes on your tootsies
2. Permanent Resident (PR) status. Without it, the banks won’t give you a loan.

There are currently 880,000 PR foreigners in Japan, but I wonder how many have bought their own homes here?

In 2017, I did, after 13 years in Japan, so I’m going to give you my take on whether it was the smart move to make. Or as wise as a kid in prison.

Procreating or Profiteering?

The first thing to consider is whether you’re going to reside in the home or view it as part of your investment portfolio. After all, nothing screams rich and cool more than a casual quip about your rental joint in Japan, eh?

Forget it.

If you’re in it for wealth growth and north pointing green arrows on Excel spreadsheets, bad news. Declining birthrate, decreasing population, and simple supply…